Author Services Part 2: Choosing Who To Work With

In my last article, I explored what author services companies can provide for authors. These companies, an expanding part of the self-publishing industry, provide authors with access to essential talent, such as cover designers and editors. But how do you choose an author services company or a freelance to work with? How much does it cost? And how do you need to adjust your processes to work with editors and other services?

Helen Corner, director of Cornerstones literary consultancy, says that authors should start off by asking for recommendations from friends. Most of Cornerstones’ clients come via word of mouth, Corner says, via agents, publishers and other authors.

If you can’t find someone through personal introductions, assess the company or freelance’s track record, says Corner. “Look at the company or editor’s past successes, experiences, trade contacts etc. Go on the net, writer forums, ask around and use your common sense. Any company that asks for lots of money, be suspicious.”

Corner’s company will give feedback on a first chapter and synopsis without obligation, something that other editors and authors services should also do. Getting a sample edit will give you a clearer sense of what to expect and give you a way to compare different services.

But before you get in touch with author services companies, you should know what you want and be ready to talk through your project in detail.

“When clients ask us for a quote we try to gather as much information as we can — how long the book is, whether any specialist knowledge is required, how complicated the formatting is likely to be, etc. From there we can usually take a good stab at costs,” say Annabel Wright and John Bond from whitefox. “It also depend on what the author wants. Some only want a quick copyedit while others are interested in a structural edit, a copyedit and a proofread — the full compliment.”

The big question on many self-publishers’ minds will be, of course, how much will I need to spend? The answer to that question depends a lot on how long your manuscript is and what sort of editing you need. Are you looking for story development to improve plot and character development, line editing to improve your prose, copy editing to catch grammatical and spelling mistakes, or proofreading to give the copy a final check? Is your manuscript a novella or an epic? The longer it is, the more it will cost.

I asked the three companies I spoke to — Cornerstones, whitefox and Lulu — to give me a sense of how much authors can expect to pay. The full range was from £135 to more than £5,000, with a thorough edit on a 100,00 word novel from £600 to £1,500. To some extent, you have to decide on your budget and search for a reliable service provider whose work you can afford.

As Michael J Sullivan commented on the previous post, you should also think about how much money your book is likely to bring in. If you think you’re going to spend £500, and you’re making a profit of £1.50 on each copy sold, you’ll need to sell 334 in order to break even. Given how unpredictable sales are, a good rule of thumb is to not spend more than you can afford to lose.

How long it will take to add editorial steps into your process will depend on how much time you have to devote to the project, says Lulu’s Dan Dillon.

“Our projects typically span three to four months,” says Dillon, “but for a highly engaged, decisive author with a completed manuscript and finalised images, the timeframe could be considerably shorter. On the other end of the spectrum, some authors may still wish to continue work on their manuscripts, or they may wish to undergo multiple rounds of design revisions. This is fine, of course, but the project schedule will lengthen accordingly.”

Be careful of publishing service providers that promise a fast turnaround, say Wright and Bond. That might be appealing, and possibly appropriate for a time-sensitive book, but you don’t want hurried work.

“Assuming a relatively straightforward book of average length,” say whitefox, “we like to leave four to five months to allow for a full structural edit, then copyedit, typesetting and proofread, alongside any design work.”

It’s also important to prepare emotionally for your collaboration with editorial professionals. It’s only too easy to reach the end of your first or second draft and feel that your book is ‘finished’. That can make it painful to receive feedback that suggestion significant work still needs to be done on your structure, plot or characters.

You should have an open mind when you begin working with editors, says Corner, but you also need to be true to your own vision of your book.

“Receiving feedback can be difficult to swallow,” she says, “but knowing what advice to take on and discard is intuitive. If feedback doesn't feel right for the author or the story then ignore it.”

Whitefox agree: “It can be hard for any writer to hear criticism of his or her work, but we think it’s better to deal with the criticism at an early, constructive stage than to be subjected to it once the book is already out and it’s too late to do much about it.

“Go in with a strong sense of what you want to achieve, ideally tempered with pragmatism and a willingness to take on board constructive criticism. You should know whether you’re publishing simply because you want to get your story out, whether it’s about garnering attention, or if you’re primarily interested in sales and making a living as a self-published author. These will all have implications for how you — and we — approach the project.”

“An open mind is important,” says Lulu’s Dillon. “Ultimately, an editor's function is to improve an author's manuscript. When they suggest modifications, they should explain their reasoning. The author can then accept or decline these suggested changes based on their own opinion.”

Whilst hiring in an editor and cover designer can feel horribly expensive, if you’re serious about your work then you have to view it as an investment in your future. You can get a lot of help for free, from friends, but a professional eye will catch problems that will elude even the most helpful of amateur readers.

If you feel confident in your project management skills, then you may prefer to find and manage your own team of freelances. Both Bibliocrunch and Writer.ly allow you to post a project, gather proposals and then decide on which offer to take. The SFWA has an excellent and detailed guide to choosing a freelance editor and their advice holds true for author services too. But for those who want to deal with just one contact, author services companies will provide a simple, complete solution.